First in a series of questions aimed at getting an official ruling to prevent people from gaming the system. Or at the very least, getting everyone on the same page.

This question is simple: can cards be played if they have no ability to change the board state?

Easy example, can a player play this card if there are no creatures on the board? In every card game I've ever played(FFG or otherwise) the answer is a resounding no. But players in my community are under the impression they can. Would like an official ruling.

Note that this is a much different case. A pulse effect like Gateway to Dis doesn't need targets and can always be played for the pulse effect and presumably get you amber. But Punch is a card that should not work on an empty board.

Well you do still gain the aember from Punch, which I believe resolves before any part of the action happens.

Then with any action you resolve as much of the action you can. On an empty board Punch wouldn't do anything other than get you 1 aember.

There are no pre-requisites for playing actions that I can see in the rules, but, I'm sure I'm probably wrong about this one too. Rules are not my forte.

You can play any card from your active house ( rule book , pg 5).

If a card you play has a Play ability (this includes all Action cards), as much as the ability as possible is resolved (pg 5 again).

Both Punch and Gateway to Dis can be played on an empty board, but Gateway would generally be a really bad choice as it gains no aember but does get you 3 chains.

If you want an official response, FFG employees do not post on the forums but you can use the rules question form .

Only Upgrades can’t be played without a creature to target. Everything else can be played.

41 minutes ago, Derrault said:

Only Upgrades can’t be played without a creature to target. Everything else can be played.

Sure, but if you play Three Fates and you are the only player with creatures you'll be losing three of them if you have them.

12 hours ago, Amanal said:

Sure, but if you play Three Fates and you are the only player with creatures you'll be losing three of them if you have them.

The ability to play a card does not mean that playing it is a good idea. See also the Gateway to Dis on an empty board as mentioned in the OP.